Guilty Love Is Backdrop in French Film on Nuclear Nomads’ Plight

French actors Tahar Rahim, left, and Lea Seydoux pose during a photocall for the film "Grand Central" at the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Photographer: Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- When Gary Manda takes a job as an
itinerant nuclear worker in southern France, he has no idea what
it means to get a “dose.”

Gary, played by Tahar Rahim in Rebecca Zlotowski’s new film
“Grand Central,” finds out soon enough. Also starring Lea
Seydoux and set at an atomic reactor with its ticking Geiger
counters and vigorous shower scrub-downs, the movie, in addition
to being a steamy love triangle featuring two of the biggest
young stars in French cinema, is the first feature film about
the country’s “nuclear nomads.” That’s the term used for
workers hired by contractors of Electricite de France SA for
repairs and maintenance at its 19 plants.

For France, which gets three-quarters of its electricity
from nuclear energy -- the most in the world -- the film
provides a rare glimpse into the plight of the 20,000 itinerants
who move between sites, often living in campsites and doing the
jobs the utility’s employees shun.

“The reaction has mostly been one of shock,” said Claude
Dubout, a nuclear contractor who advised Zlotowski for the film.
“People seem to think nuclear reactors are run by engineers in
suits who sit in control rooms. I tried to ensure that from a
technical point of view there were no errors, that it accurately
reflected this world that is unknown to the general public.”

The plot of the film, which opened across France Aug. 28
after being shown at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, revolves
around Gary’s passionate affair with Karole, played by Seydoux,
behind the back of her partner Toni, another nuclear worker.

A Peek

They work and live in close confines at EDF’s Cruas-Meysse
atomic plant in the Rhone River Valley and in mobile homes at a
nearby campsite. Gary and Karole’s furtive sexual encounters are
mostly shot outside along a grassy river bank against the
backdrop of towering 900-megawatt reactors.

The generators are part of EDF’s network of 58 reactors
dotting the French countryside. The scenes inside the reactor
were shot at a disaffected plant in Austria.

Between romps with Karole, Gary’s day job takes filmgoers
behind heavy steel doors where workers don white protective gear
complete with breathing apparatus to carry out tasks as
carefully and quickly as possible so as to avoid too-high doses
of radiation.

“It’s a fight against the dose,” Gary, who was unemployed
and without qualifications, is told by a new colleague. “It’s
colorless, odorless and all around you.”

Slow Contamination

The workers hover over turquoise waters containing highly
radioactive spent fuel or handle canisters with dangerous waste.
In one scene, a sobbing worker is scrubbed down and getting her
head shaved due to radiation. In another, Gary saves Toni,
removing a glove in the process and getting contaminated.

Any more, he is warned, and he will be consigned to non-nuclear zones of the plant, ending his work season. He does get
another big dose and his boss is willing to turn a blind eye if
he promises to “disappear” when the contract ends.

“Forbidden love and radiation slowly contaminate Gary,”
according to the promotional material for the film distributed
at Cannes.

The movie’s technical adviser Dubout, who published a book
in 2010 called “I was a Nuclear Decontaminator” that charted
his life as an itinerant atomic worker, still works on
dismantling atomic sites. The film was also inspired by
Elisabeth Filhol’s 2010 novel La Centrale on the same subject.

Second Class

When the Fukushima meltdown occurred in 2011, France’s
atomic industry, along with the government, went into overdrive
to reassure the population that the country had a robust safety
record.

Nevertheless, the regulator imposed an estimated 10 billion
euros ($13.3 billion) of improvements on EDF to bolster defenses
including against flooding and earthquakes. The Autorite de
Surete Nucleaire, or ASN, also examined the plight of contract
workers, questioning in a report whether EDF needed so many and
if they are properly supervised.

EDF hasn’t proven that sub-contracting work is
“compatible” with its safety responsibilities, the regulator
concluded.

Asked Sept. 10 about reaction to the film within the ASN,
director general Jean-Christophe Niel, who hadn’t seen it, said
a screening may be organized for staff.

French nuclear sub-contractors get on average three times
more radiation than EDF workers -- although at 1.67
millisieverts a year, the level is still well below the
regulated limit of 20 millisieverts a year, according to the ASN.

‘More Respect’

In the wake of the Japanese accident, EDF pledged to limit
to three the number of layers of sub-contracting it uses at
atomic plants and make the companies more “socially
responsible.”

In “Grand Central” the hierarchy between EDF employees
and the so-called nomads is illustrated when Gary learns that
Cruas has a separate parking lot for EDF “aristocrats,” who he
is told also get free electricity at home among other perks.

Over the past couple of years “nothing has changed for
these workers,” Dubout said. “They are living precarious,
invisible lives while working for an industry that is earning
enormous amounts of money.”

Dubout says he has so far spurned overtures from French
labor unions and anti-nuclear organizations to publicize his
views.

”I’m not against nuclear energy,” he said. “I’ve made a
living from it my whole life. I just think these workers deserve
more respect.”